Warminster holiday club crashes

DOZENS of people have had holidays cancelled after Colin Hornsey, who ran Unicorn Holidays and Tours Ltd, Warminster, called in a debt management company.

Customers who booked on week-long coach tours to Scotland due to leave on July 8 and July 10 were notified by letter that their holidays were cancelled. About 30 people booked at a cost of £599 each.

One woman, in Sherborne, Dorset, who would not be named, said: “I can’t afford another holiday this year.”

Mr Hornsey, 61, has run the club from his home in Prestbury Drive for 10 years. He estimates that he usually ran 10-15 tours a year.

He said: “Everyone will get refunded and a letter has been sent to advise of the situation.”

Tours to Northumberland and Liverpool/Manchester had been booked by about 20 people for August and September. He said: “We are in discussions with interested parties for those taking on the remainder of the coach tours and are confident that they will go ahead.”

An Association of British Travel Agents spokesman said: “If you sell a holiday package in the UK which includes transport and accommodation then the Package Travel Regulations, 1992, will apply and there should be financial protection for the customer – they should be refunded and failure to do so is breaking the law.”

This must be done by either belonging to an association like ABTA which refunds the money, taking out insurance or having a trust account where the money cannot be touched.

Mr Hornsey’s club was not an ABTA member, and he has not stated whether insurance had been taken out or if a trust account was ever set up.